A young woman daydreams to escape from a mundane day at the office with her boss and co-worker. Eren Gülfidan directs “Daydreaming,” a collection of surreal images presented as a stream-of-consciousness tone poem. A brain falls from the sky. A mime juggles on the train. The woman imagines herself...

A girl sits for a portrait, allowing flowers to adorn her until they cover her completely. “Haus Des Meeres,” directed by Kristine Morgan, is a lovely video art piece envisioned as both a beautiful object and a reaction against beautiful objects. Regina Soza is the girl in the flowers, and her st...

“Sandy” journeys through a New Jersey beachside town with no sense of the past as sea levels rise. Our take: This personal essay film by Dylan Hansen-Fliedner is a contemplative survey of family history, climate change, Hollywood hypocrisy, and our culture’s unwillingness to change its ways. Visu...

A journey through a sleepless night directed by and starring Anna Salinas. “Insomniac” is a stream-of-consciousness experimental film where a flood of disconnected images and thoughts flash through a tired mind. A voiceover introduces the primary concerns of the night - unpaid parking tickets, bi...

A random hookup leads to an ambush interview by a documentary crew. “Humans of My Bed,” directed by Sam Permar, is an edgy, darkly funny mockumentary exploring boundaries of sexual liberation and internalized homophobia. At a friend’s birthday party, Kip and Neel, meet, hit it off, and have sex i...

After falling into an industrial cooking vat, Marty's coworkers welcome him back to the bakery with an extravagant party. Drew Angle and Katelyn Douglass direct “Terrible Accident at the Bread Factory,” a one-take comedy which introduces over a dozen employees of Crumbles Baking Co. as they criss...

A group of curly haired strangers help Katelyn recreate her past life as a Kurt Vile t-shirt. Directed by Drew Angle and Katelyn Douglass, “Shirt Vile,” is an evocative tribute to the musician and a portrait of a fan, a young woman who connects with him on a metaphysical level, but also a physica...

After a painful dry spell a woman attempts to have a one night stand. Directed by Lizzy Sanford, “Rubber Heart” is an open and honest comedy examining issues of gender roles and expectations of appearance. The man doesn’t know how to react when faced with Anna’s pubic hair. Trying to compensate f...

Left home alone for the weekend, two sisters navigate their strained rivalry amid the horrors of adolescent sexuality. Lizzy Sanford writes and directs “The Knot,” an understated character study about sibling-hood and teenage rites of passage. The film is merely a glimpse but it’s painted with vi...

Alessandra Lacorazza’s “Mami” takes a risky look at the struggle a daughter engages in when she realizes that her chance for a successful life might hinge on the abandonment of her dependent mother. Carolina, a young Latinx immigrant woman lives with her mother in the United States, is the careta...

In a series of observational moments, a violist, barre instructor, and chemistry teacher grapple with the realities of working in quarantine. Lydia Cornett directs “Teaching in Quarantine,” a fly-on-the-wall doc portrait of virtual teaching post Covid-19. Requiring a good deal of adaptation, tech...

A socially anxious college student reluctantly heads to a party attempting to make new friends. Nande Walters directs “Who Are You Really?”, an experimental portrait of insecurity characterized by a raw, youthful energy. Anya walks into the room and immediately feels like everyone is judging her....

A young mother finds a key that opens the door for her son’s escape. A kinetic experimental film made entirely from still photographs, Thea Lorentzen’s “A Key for the Kid,” is a small marvel in abstract ingenuity. The year is 2100 and the task is to find a blinking red key hidden in the forest. T...

A naked body moves a stranger to empathy in this experimental film by Frank Mosley, in one of two scenes investigating body, movement, and connection. “Parthenon” is carried by the transfixing presence of Lily Baldwin; the film around her is largely wordless, and divided into two loosely connecte...

A lonely man sets out in search of his soul mate after what he believes to be a fateful encounter with a banana. “Loveseat,” directed by Grace Kim, expresses its tale of longing with quirky, surreal gestures. The crossword-puzzle obsessed Jared is going about his daily life when he gets a mysteri...

A weary French professor and a young drug dealer share an evening together in Philadelphia. A two-hander character study, “May,” directed by Julian Turner, examines an unlikely relationship forged during a drug deal. Randolph and Genevieve find themselves in each other’s company searching for a d...

An art assistant for a gallery in New York knows his role well, to live in romantic poverty and be paid in social clout and drugs. “Art Boy,” directed by Taylor Ervin, is a sharp-edged depiction of an art scene where the actual art is a second tier concern over the lifestyles and personas behind ...

Two visiting New Yorkers are forced to stay in New Mexico while a serial killer dressed as a leopard stalks the city. “They Cry By Night,” by director Wes Sheridan, is a slow cinema mix of cultural essay and mumblecore character study, placed in an environment of fear and uneasiness. Carlos and A...

A man films a woman describing patterns. “Usually I’m Very Supportive of Delusion,” directed by Nic Murphy and written by Jessica Garrison (winner of the NoBudge Audience Award in January for her recent directorial effort, “DIME”), is a hard-to-describe experimental film which uses a simple struc...

Two actors workshop a scene in which an argument over spices turns into a larger fight about the state of their relationship. Nic Murphy directs “Spice Islands,” a meta portrayal about a man and woman locked in heated scene study, loosely guided by an offscreen director. It’s easy to lose yoursel...

A high school prom queen in Memphis is depressed. Cult Memphis filmmaker’s epic short about teenage depression. Funny, touching stuff. Directed by Ben Siler.

A young woman recalls her experience in two different relationships. Alexis T. Roberts directs “There’s a Glass House That I Want You To See,” a poetic exploration of love and separation. Within its elliptical, fragmentary form, the film finds truthful moments in a range of scenes, from an improm...

A dense fog in the San Fernando Valley cancels a meeting of UFO hunters and causes an unexpected tragedy in the nearby mountains. “Calabasas 1/26/20,” directed by Xavier Rotnofsky, becomes a documentary portrait of the impromptu gathering of mourners at a park near the helicopter crash of Kobe Br...

After a strange first date, a young man recounts the experience to his roommate. “Everything Happens to Me,” directed by Nick Beardslee, is an amiable rom-com about an intimate connection that suddenly goes off the rails. Shown in parallel timelines — we watch the date unfold, and we hear about i...